


unexpected

by hyunhoist



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: 2min meet at a party, Alternate Universe - College/University, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Strangers to Lovers, Underage Drinking, fashion major seungmin, physics major minho, slight mention of dancer minho, this was much longer than expected
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24957754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyunhoist/pseuds/hyunhoist
Summary: “remember when i said you’d fall in love with someone by the end of the semester? it’s because i was hoping it would be me.”orminho and seungmin meet at a frat party and their relationship progresses from there.
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Seo Changbin, Hwang Hyunjin/Lee Felix, Kim Seungmin & Lee Minho | Lee Know, Kim Seungmin/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 382





	unexpected

**Author's Note:**

> well, here is this 16.5k 2min fic that has been sitting in my wips since the beginning of the year. honestly, this is much longer than i meant for it to be but i hope everyone enjoys it anyway. everyone needs a little soft 2min in their life.
> 
> i wanted to finally just get this fic done so this is unedited, i apologize for any mistakes. but!!! thank you so much to anyone that spends their time reading this!!

Seungmin really doesn’t know how he ended up deep in the woods at a frat house attending one of the semester’s biggest parties. Well, actually, he does know. And to be fair, he kind of put himself in this situation.

Every semester each frat throws their biggest party during the first week of classes to get people talking and hopefully recruit some new members. Unsurprisingly, most of the people that attend these parties are not interested in joining a frat in the slightest. However, these frats have an overwhelming amount of money to waste and what college student is going to say no to free alcohol?

Not Kim Seungmin and most certainly not Han Jisung. 

Seungmin loves Jisung, he really does. They’ve been best friends for as long as they could remember and they even decided to live with each other once they discovered they were going to college together, but last year college life hit hard and Jisung found himself going to parties  _ every weekend.  _ And getting drunk  _ every weekend.  _ And Seungmin was on hangover duty.  _ Every. Weekend.  _ Seungmin remembers when he brought it up to Jisung over the summer. 

_ “Jisung, you drink and party way too much. I’m tired of babysitting you every weekend.” _

_ “I don’t even party that much and when I do drink, it’s responsibly.” _

_ Seungmin scoffs. “I literally have videos of you every single weekend either coming back to the dorm wasted, waking up the next morning complaining about your hangover, or running to the bathroom to get sick.” Jisung offers a weak, fake innocent smile. “This is a much-needed intervention and I’m giving you an ultimatum.” _

_ “What kind of ultimatum could you possi-” _

_ “You need to cut down on the partying or we are not living together next semester.” _

Needless to say, Seungmin won that round. Except there was one condition. 

Seungmin had to go to a first week of classes frat party with Jisung and Jisung was allowed to drink as much as his heart desired. 

And  _ that _ is how Seungmin ended up deep in the woods at a frat house attending one of the semester's biggest parties. 

It wasn’t that Seungmin hated parties or anything, he just preferred much more low-key gatherings. He enjoyed staying in and drinking and laughing his ass off at bad movies with his friends, not being around a ton of strangers in a space he wasn’t familiar with at a party that could get busted by the cops at any minute. 

And to make it even worse, Jisung had left him by himself to go spend time with the boy he's been hopelessly crushing on for about a year now. 

“Oh my god, Changbin really wants to hang out. Please, please, please, do you mind if I go?” Jisung practically begs his best friend just minutes after they had arrived at the party. 

“Fine, but seriously be careful. I trust him, but if you need anything call me.” Seungmin warns and Jisung nearly squeals from happiness as he pulls his friend into a hug before taking off. 

So with Jisung off  _ somewhere _ in the house with the boy he has the biggest crush on, Seungmin makes his way to the kitchen on his own to get himself a drink. Seungmin admits, he is being petty. He knows he shouldn’t drink this much because he’s alone at a party and anything could happen, but he’s upset that Jisung left him alone (even though he should’ve told him if he was really that upset) and he doesn’t feel like taking care of Jisung in the morning so he might as well get shitfaced too. 

(It makes perfect sense in his mind.)

The kitchen wasn’t that busy at all. On one hand, Seungmin was shocked because of the wide variety of free alcohol available for anyone to take. On the other hand, he wasn’t shocked because it was pretty far into the night and most people were already drunk, tucked into corners of the house to make out, or on their way out to get laid. 

Well, what is he supposed to do now? He isn’t good at talking to random people like Jisung, he doesn’t know if any of their other friends showed up tonight, and he is avoiding every other area of the house because they are all packed with way too many people for him to be comfortable so Kim Seungmin is  _ stuck _ . Alone. In a frat house kitchen.

As time passes, Seungmin continuously swears under his breath about Jisung leaving him alone until a boy finally walks into the kitchen and over to the refrigerator, looking for a place to fill his water bottle. Seungmin has had a bit too much to drink at this point. Not enough to be classified as  _ wasted _ , but enough to haze his thought process which is why he takes the opportunity of someone finally being near him to rant about his night. 

“You know, typically if a friend says let’s go to this party together it means we’re going to hang out at that party together, right?” Seungmin speaks suddenly, his words slurring together, and the boy glances over his shoulder with a questioning gaze. 

“I think you might have me confused for someone else,” he says, obviously amused as he shuts the refrigerator door. He turns his entire body to face Seungmin and leans forward to rest his arms on the marble countertop in front of him.

“Not you,” Seungmin groans, sounding offended as if the boy should’ve already known his entire life story. “My friend dragged me to this party and then left me alone so he could go hang out with the stupid boy that he likes,” Seungmin explains and the other boy opens his mouth to respond but Seungmin begins speaking again, even louder this time. “And don’t get me wrong, he’s cute and everything and I hope they work out because they get along really well and Jisung seems really happy and Changbin has been really really nice to me when I see him and also unexpectedly really good at drawing but still. Friendship.”

The boy laughs this time and Seungmin finally  _ looks _ at him. He’s absolutely stunning, he thinks. Maybe even one of the prettiest boys he’s ever seen. His blue hair makes him stand out from everyone else in the house, even when it’s partially hidden by the white snapback perfectly positioned backwards on his head. He’s wearing a white shirt with thin, red stripes that’s just a little bit too large for him partially tucked into ripped light blue jeans that fit him  _ just right.  _

  
  


“I’m Seungmin, by the way. Fashion major, I’m obviously very classy.” He introduces himself with a giggle before throwing back another shot and leaning forward on the counter to keep his balance. The other boy finally glances down to the space in front of the younger boy and spots an empty beer bottle as well as an abundance of empty shot glasses. 

“Lee Minho. Physics major.” 

“Smart,” is the only thing Seungmin says before reaching forward for another shot glass. 

Minho beats him to it, though. Capturing Seungmin’s arm in his right hand and the shot glass he was aiming for in his left. “Maybe you’ve had enough,” Minho tells him cautiously, trying not to offend the younger boy. 

Seungmin snatches his arm out of Minho’s grasp. “Oh, you don’t drink?” 

“Typically I do. I volunteered to drive tonight, though.” Minho explains, motioning to the water bottle sitting on the counter directly in front of him.

“Cute.”

“Thank you?” Minho questions with a chuckle, taking a red solo cup from one of the many stacks littered around the house for people to fix drinks for themselves. He turns around to fill the cup with water and Seungmin furrows his eyebrows at the action. 

“Don’t you have a water bottle?” The younger boy asks, dramatically motioning to Minho’s water bottle as if he couldn’t see it.

“This is for you.” Minho turns again to face Seungmin and slides the cup across the counter to him. 

Seungmin glances down at the cup, then back up at Minho. “How do I know you didn’t put something in here?”

“You literally just watched my every move.”

“You could be sneaky. Boys are very sneaky.”

“Do you want to get your own cup of water then?”

“No.”

“No?”

Seungmin’s lips suddenly form into a pout. “Just promise me.”

Minho pauses for a moment. Seungmin is cute. Really cute, he thinks. “I promise.”

“Uh uh,” Seungmin shakes his head and his hand flies out in front of him, his pinky sticking out for Minho to interlock his with. 

The older boy lets a chuckle escape from his lips and reaches forward to lock their pinkies together. “I pinky promise I did not put anything in your drink. Now please hydrate.”

“Why do you even care?” Seungmin asks much more aggressively than intended but proceeds to pick up the cup anyway. He takes a couple of large gulps and peeks at Minho from over the top of the cup. He pulls the cup away from his face and groans loudly before speaking as if it’s the biggest inconvenience for him. “Are you going to answer my question?”

“I don’t know if you’re always this aggressive or if it’s the alcohol,” Minho chuckles. “I apologize for not wanting anything bad to happen to you. Next time you try to start up a conversation with me I will gladly ignore you.” 

Seungmin grins and brings the cup back up to his lips. He can tell Minho is joking, so he doesn’t get offended despite the irritated edge to the older boy’s tone. “That would probably make me a little bit sad,” Seungmin admits before taking a long drink to avoid Minho’s gaze. He doesn’t do well with cute boys and he never has. Sadly, it isn’t any different now that he’s slightly drunk. 

“Why would that make you a little bit sad?” Minho asks, obviously intrigued by the sudden confession. 

“Well, you’re cute,” Seungmin begins. “If I tried to start a conversation with any cute boy then I would hope that they would talk to me. So you shouldn’t ignore me. Because you’re cute.”

Minho chuckles. “So I’ve heard.”

Seungmin glares at the older boy. “It wouldn’t hurt to compliment  _ me _ .”

“A bit needy, don’t you think?” Minho’s phone vibrates in his pocket as he speaks and Seungmin’s glare doesn’t lighten up as he reaches back to pull his phone out to check the text he just received from one of his friends. “Ahh, the chauffeur of the night is needed.”

“Leaving already?” Seungmin tells himself inside his head not to sound so disappointed, but he really doesn’t have much control over his emotions right now. 

Minho smiles and raises an eyebrow. “Why? Gonna miss me?”

“No, I was asking because I was hoping you’d leave me alone now.” Seungmin teases defensively, hoping Minho wouldn’t take him seriously. 

“Well then it’s your lucky night, I have driving duties to tend to,” Minho explains and Seungmin pouts again. “Do you have a ride home?”

“Mhmm,” Seungmin hums as he finishes off his cup of water. 

“A safe ride?”

“Yes, completely sober. Promise.” Seungmin offers his pinky again. 

Minho locks their pinkies for the second time that night but doesn’t let go as quickly this time. “Drink more water, too.”

“Promise,” Seungmin speaks as sincerely as he can and pulls his pinky away. “Go take care of your friends now, I’m sure they’d be much happier to see you than I am.”

Minho shakes his head and laughs quietly before grabbing his water bottle off of the counter. “Goodbye, Seungmin.” 

“Drive safe,” Seungmin holds onto the last word teasingly. 

The older boy turns away from Seungmin, making his way out of the kitchen when he stops in his tracks and turns back around to face him. “By the way,” Minho begins and Seungmin raises an eyebrow curiously, “you’re cute, Seungmin.”

. . .

Three weeks into the semester and Jisung has been doing a good job at following through with his promise. Even though it’s only been three weeks, Seungmin is happy because his best friend has not been to a single party ever since the first week of classes party that they went to together. 

Jisung seems to be happy with his decisions as well because instead of going out to party, he’s gotten to spend a lot more time with Changbin. They’ve gone out on dates for three weekends in a row and Jisung seems to be more in love than ever (it’s kind of sickening in a cute way if you ask Seungmin).

His best friend also seems much more focused on his school work. It’s almost a complete 180 from last semester. Now Jisung uses a  _ planner _ and he even goes to the library to study. Seungmin thought it was just because Changbin likes to go to the library, but now Jisung even goes without Changbin, usually begging Seungmin to come along. 

But the thing is, Seungmin is  _ not _ a library person. He doesn’t like how busy it is, he doesn’t enjoy feeling like everyone is staring at him and he doesn’t like how noisy it can be, especially during the day. Jisung knew how much Seungmin hated the library, but Jisung hated going to the library alone more so he always asked. Usually, when Seungmin says no, Jisung will just whine about it for a good twenty minutes and then find someone else to go with him. 

Today, though, he has a different approach. 

“Seungmin, pleaseeeeeee.”

“Jisung, why can’t you just find another friend like you usually do?” Seungmin asks as he turns the page of his textbook and continues taking notes on some complex physics concepts that he really doesn’t understand at all. 

Jisung sighs and flops down onto Seungmin’s bed on his back. “I already asked everyone else and they’re either busy or don’t feel like going today but I already have a lot of homework for this stupid chemistry class.” He pauses to glance at Seungmin to see if he’s budged at all. He hasn’t. “You know I wouldn’t beg you if I had other options, I know how much you hate it.” 

Seungmin rolls his eyes. “Jisung, I’m not going to the library.”

“I gave up partying for you and you won’t even go to the library with me one time?” There it was. He pulled out the big guns.

“That’s not the same and you know it.”

“But still,” Jisung drags out the word. “I think you owe it to me, actually. I don’t ask for much and I can’t think of anything else I’d want from you.”

Seungmin leans forward to drop his head onto his desk. “Get out so I can change,” he mumbles and it’s muffled by his textbook, but Jisung understands regardless.

Within the next forty-five minutes, Jisung and Seungmin are settled in at the library with their textbooks sprawled out across the table. 

Jisung explained to Seungmin before they arrived that this was his favorite spot in the library. It was by a large window so they could look out onto campus, but it was also in a corner that apparently not many people knew about, so Seungmin didn’t have to worry about the paranoia of thinking that everyone was silently judging him. 

After spending about an hour with Jisung in the library, Seungmin realizes that it was probably best for them to come here. He thought he was struggling with his physics but it was nothing compared to how much Jisung was struggling with his chemistry. Within the hour, Jisung had done nothing except fidget with his pen, make random beats on their table using his fists, and continuously hit his head on his textbook in the hopes that somehow the material would suddenly become understandable to him. 

Seungmin feels bad for his best friend. He wishes that he could help, but he’s just as clueless when it comes to chemistry. That’s why he opted to take physics for his science credit instead. 

“We’re only three weeks into the class and I’m already this lost,” Jisung complains as he pulls his head up from the table. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Don’t worry, Jisung. You’ll do great, you just have to find someone that can maybe help you out.” Seungmin offers a weak smile. 

“Well, Changbin has been helping me because he took the same class last year but I don’t want him to think I’m stupid.”

Seungmin snorts and Jisung’s eyes settle into a glare. “What? He won’t think you’re stupid, Jisung. If anything, he probably thinks it’s cute and enjoys your company.”

Jisung sighs and his shoulders droop as he stares blankly at his textbook once again. Seungmin couldn’t really do much but offer his friend an empathic look, but when his eyes began to wander away from his pitiful friend he noticed a familiar face shelving books in the corner behind Jisung. Minho’s back is turned towards the two boys, but he twists around every so often to collect books from his cart to place them back in the correct spot on the shelves. 

Seungmin remembers his face so vividly, but he can’t recall the boy’s name to save his life. He remembers bits and pieces of their interactions from the party, but he was extremely embarrassing and he’s pretty sure he told the boy how cute he is more than once so he was not exactly eager to see him here. 

He  _ is  _ really cute though, Seungmin finds. His attire is much less casual than the outfit he was wearing at the party. He’s still wearing jeans, they’re just darker and they lack rips and holes. He also has on an oversized sweater, the front is tucked neatly into his jeans while the back hangs loosely. When he finishes his observation of the boy’s outfit, he glances back up at his face to find that he’s looking back at him with a raised eyebrow and smug smirk resting on his face. 

Seungmin bursts into a fit of awkward coughs, averting his gaze and Jisung looks up from his textbook with scrunched eyebrows. “Are you good?”

“No, yeah. I’m fine. Sorry, just a cough.” Seungmin rushes to explain and looks back over at the boy to see that he’s gone back to shelving books. 

Jisung furrows his eyebrows and turns around in his chair to see what Seungmin’s staring at. When he faces his friend again, he has a teasing smile on his face. “Crush on the librarian? Seems a little cliché for you, Min.”

“I don’t have a crush on him.” Seungmin responds immediately and goes back to his note-taking. 

“Hm,” Jisung grunts and glances over his shoulder again. “Well, then you should be perfectly fine with knowing that he’s making his way over here.”

Seungmin rolls his eyes and continues writing his notes. Jisung always does things like this. Trying to fake Seungmin out to prove a point. 

At least that’s what he thought was happening until he hears a familiar voice from above him. “Hey.”

Seungmin slowly looks up from his book to look at the boy, then glances over at his best friend. “Hey,” he responds hesitantly, ignoring the smug look on Jisung’s face. 

“I’m Minho, I’m not sure if you remember me from the party.” Jisung’s eyebrows shoot up when he hears this. Seungmin can’t even celebrate the fact that he doesn’t have to awkwardly ask for the boy’s name because his best friend is shooting lasers at him with his eyes. 

Seungmin nods slowly in response, trying to figure out what he should say. “I do. Kind of. Probably not as much as you do.”

Minho laughs quietly, fidgeting with his sleeves that were now pulled over his hands. Seungmin notes how cute the older boy looks with the sweater paws covering his fists. “Yeah, probably not.” He responds and glances down to see the physics textbook laying in front of Seungmin. “Hey, I’m almost done with my shift. If you need any help with your physics I can head back over here when I clock out.”

“No, it’s fine. I don’t reall-”

“He’d love that,” Jisung speaks over him. “Poor Minnie never wants to admit when he needs help, but he is struggling a bit with physics.” Jisung juts his lip out into a pout and reaches across the table to pinch Seungmin’s cheek. Seungmin swats his hand away with a glare and Minho watches the interaction with curiosity.

“Great. Well, I just need to go put that book cart back, and then I’ll be back.” Minho explains, walking back over to the spot where he left his cart. 

“Great,” Seungmin says with an awkward smile and once Minho turns away from the two boys he slaps Jisung’s arm. 

“Ow! What the hell? I should be the one hitting  _ you _ .” Jisung glares while he rubs the spot on his arm that Seungmin just attacked. 

“Why? I didn’t do anything!”

“You didn’t tell me you met a guy,” Jisung speaks, exasperation threading his voice. “The one who’s always talking about how gross love is has a crush. Golden.”

“I don’t have a crush!” Seungmin exclaimed through a whisper. “I didn’t tell you about him because I met him at that stupid party and nothing happened and I was kinda _drunk_. There was nothing to tell.”

“Well, obviously there was if he decided to approach you from across the room,” Jisung speaks with finality as he begins to pack his things into his backpack. 

“Why are you doing that? Where are you going?” 

“I’m gonna go ask Bin to help me with my homework,” Jisung smiles and Seungmin groans. He should’ve seen this coming from Jisung. His best friend had been trying to set him up with guys for so long and now one of his plans is finally working. 

“You can’t just leave me alone with him. Jisung, please.” Seungmin reaches out to grab Jisung’s hand and tries to convince him to stay with a pout. When Jisung takes a look through the shelves, he spots Minho already walking back over to their table, this time with a backpack. 

“Seungmin, I’m trying to get a boyfriend. Are you really going to hold me back? If you’re in love with me you can just say it, I’ll let you down easy.”

The younger boy rolls his eyes and crosses his arms across his chest. “Fuck you, Jisung.”

“See? Now, I’ll be on my way out.” Jisung smiles and throws his backpack onto his shoulder. 

“Oh. You’re leaving?” Minho asks Jisung as soon as he gets back to the two boys. 

“Sadly,” Jisung pretends to be sad for a moment with an over-exaggerated frown. “I have other plans and I don’t want to distract you two, so hopefully we can actually hang out sometime. Any friend of Seungmin’s is a friend of mine.”

“Yeah, definitely. It was nice meeting you,” Minho says genuinely and Seungmin makes a mental note to slap Jisung later for initiating a friendship with the boy. 

“Well, I’ll see you back at the apartment, Minnie. Love you,” Jisung teases with a smug smile on his face as he turns around and makes his way towards the exit. 

Minho slowly walks over to the chair that Jisung had just made vacant and shrugs his backpack off before taking a seat. “He seems fun.” 

“Gotta love him,” Seungmin says sarcastically, spinning his pen between his fingers. 

“Is he your boyfriend?” Minho asks slowly and Seungmin only blinks as his mind processes the question. 

He can’t hold back his laughter as if it’s the most ridiculous assumption. “Jisung? My boyfriend?”

“You two just seem,” Minho pauses and looks over at the main exit where Jisung is pushing open the door as he tries to find the right word, “close.”

“He’s my best friend. Practically my brother,” Seungmin explains as he tries to calm down his laughter. “He’s the same friend from the party, the one that left me alone to go spend time with his crush. Which he just did again, it’s a bad habit of his.”

“Maybe it’s a good habit, I seem to always be here when it happens.”

Seungmin raises an eyebrow before a teasing smile sweeps over his face. “Yeah, I’d consider that pretty bad.”

“Ahhh, so you’re just as snarky when you’re sober,” Minho observes. “And drunk Seungmin was  _ so so  _ into me. Sad.”

The younger boy freezes as the last word slips through Minho’s lips. Sad? Did Minho  _ want  _ Seungmin to be into him? “I like to joke around a lot.”

“So you are into me?”

“Absolutely not.”

Minho laughs and shakes his head. “I’m the same way. The joking around a lot thing.” Minho clarifies. 

“I do it with all of my friends. You should consider yourself very lucky.” 

“Oh, I do. I feel so honored.” Minho jokes with a nod and lays his hand over his chest. “The only person I’ve ever not joked around with is my friend Chan and that’s because I was kind of in love with him.”

“Yikes,” Seungmin scrunches his nose up dramatically in disgust. 

“How can you say yikes? You don’t even know him,” Minho questions. 

“Not yikes to him, yikes to being in love.”

“Oh, so you’re one of those.”

Seungmin’s entire face scrunches up at that comment. “One of what?”

“Oh, look at me. I hate love, love is stupid and I will never be in love with anyone ever.” Minho mocks with a high-pitched voice. “I’m willing to bet that you’ll be in love with someone before the semester is over.”

“Yeah, I doubt it. This isn’t some kind of romantic comedy. I’m not looking for love and I’m really not interested in a relationship so I will not be falling in love with anyone any time soon.” Seungmin shrugs casually and focuses his attention back on the textbook in front of him. “Now, I thought you were supposed to be helping me study.” 

. . .

“Honey, I’m home!” Jisung yells as he enters their shared apartment, obviously in a good mood. “Tell me everything about your study date with the cute librarian.”

Jisung slides his shoes off by the door and tosses his backpack to the side near the front door. “Not a date, Ji,” Seungmin responds dully, not even bothering to look up from his tablet. He was currently making some changes on a sketch for a new suit he decided to work on just for fun. This semester he was only able to take three fashion courses because he has to finish his general education courses so most of his valuable free time was spent sketching out ideas for different pieces of clothing that he wanted to create. 

Jisung huffs and sits on the couch beside his best friend. “Why not? I gave you the perfect opportunity to make a move. He was cute and obviously into you.”

Seungmin rolls his eyes at Jisung’s observations. “Okay, first of all, he’s a friend. He wasn’t into me. Second of all, you know I’m bad with boys so why would you expect me to make a move?”

“Did you at least get his number?” Jisung asks as if getting the number of a really cute boy that could possibly be into you, but probably not, was the easiest thing in the world. The silence from Seungmin was more than enough to get the message across. “Seungmin, come on. He’s  _ hot.  _ If you don’t make a move then somebody else will.”

“Exactly, that’s the point. I don’t want to make a move,” Seungmin lies through his teeth and Jisung snorts. “It doesn’t matter how cute or hot he might be, I just don’t have the time.” The younger boy continues to explain himself, keeping his eyes on his tablet. 

Jisung is smug and he has every right to be because he knows Seungmin better than anyone else. Sure, maybe Seungmin has never been in a relationship, but he has had crushes before. Plenty of them. And as far as Jisung can tell, he’s showing all of the signs of the beautiful beginning of a crush. “Okay, fine. No time for a boyfriend.” There’s a mischievous grin settled in on his face as he speaks, though. 

Seungmin sighs with content at his designs as he smashes the power button on his tablet to put the screen to sleep. “Great. Now that we’re on the same page, I’m starving and you owe me a meal.”

“I owe you a meal?” Jisung nearly shouts with his eyes wide open. 

“Yes, for making me stay alone with Minho in the library. You owe me big time.” The brown-haired boy exaggerates the final two words. “Now let’s go.”

. . .

Seungmin and Jisung were sitting in the grass outside of the student union discussing the plans for their joint birthday bash. Every year on the last Friday of September, all of the boys got together to celebrate Jisung, Felix, and Seungmin’s birthdays. It was a tradition that their mothers started and they decided to take it with them to college. 

“You should invite Changbin,” Seungmin suggests and Jisung immediately shakes his head at the recommendation. “I’m sure we would all love him, Ji. He seems like a great guy.”

“Yeah, he is. You guys, on the other hand,” Jisung trails off, not wanting to say anything rude about his very unique group of friends. “I just don’t want him to be overwhelmed.”

“We are not that bad.”

“Last time Felix nearly set the kitchen on the fire.” 

“Okay, you have a point but we won’t let him try to cook. We won’t have to deal with that this time.” Seungmin justifies. Jisung sighs because he knows that Seungmin won’t give up. Their entire group of friends is more than eager to actually get to know the famous Changbin and this would be the perfect time to do so. 

The older boy crosses his arms across his chest and forms his lips into a pout. “Fine, I’ll ask him if he wants to come but if he says no then I won’t force him to.”

“Deal,” Seungmin agrees with a smile and his eyes roam to different people occupying the grassy lawn when he spots a familiar head of blue hair walking out of the student union. 

Jisung follows his gaze and smirks when he spots Minho walking down the steps. “We can invite him,” Jisung suggests casually. Before Seungmin’s mind even has time to catch up with his body, he’s reaching forward to slap his roommate’s arm. 

“We’re not inviting him.”

“Why not? He’s cool and I wanna be friends and you  _ like _ him.” 

“I do not like him!” Seungmin shouts much louder than he anticipated. He swears he can hear his voice echo. 

He shrinks down into himself as he can feel the gazes of the people sitting around him. “Well, I still want to be his friend so we’re inviting him.” Jisung smiles and throws his hand in the air, motioning for Minho to come over. 

Of course, Minho breaks into a wide smile when he sees the two boys and makes his way over. Seungmin doesn’t understand why Jisung feels the need to put him through all of this suffering. It’s understandable that Jisung wants him to be happy in a relationship because Jisung is so happy in his almost-relationship, but Seungmin doesn’t  _ want _ to be in a relationship and he’s not even into Minho at all. 

“Hey, what’s up?” Minho asks with a smile. 

Okay, maybe Seungmin thinks he’s cute. 

“Well, as you may or may not know, Seungmin’s birthday just passed,” Jisung begins his explanation and Minho looks over at Seungmin with a raised eyebrow. 

“This I did not know,” Minho interrupts and Jisung looks at Seungmin with disbelief. The youngest boy just shrugs nonchalantly, not understanding the big deal. “But continue.”

“In our little group of friends, three of us have birthdays in September so we like to have an end of the month gathering to celebrate everyone’s big day. Last year it was just the four of us, but this year we are extending the invitation.”

“I assume the extension is to me?” Minho questions. 

“Yes, we would love for you to come,” Jisung answers eagerly. 

Minho turns his body to face Seungmin with a smug smile on his face. “Oh? Would we?” He asks, bringing his right hand up to grab hold of the strap of his backpack. “Seungmin included?”

Jisung looks at Seungmin with a stern look on his face. Seungmin would honestly prefer for Minho to not be at the party, mostly because he doesn’t feel like embarrassing himself. On the other hand, he knows that Jisung really wants to befriend the older boy and there’s nothing wrong with that. Maybe if Minho comes to the party, Jisung will see that they aren’t into each other and give up on trying to get them together.

So Seungmin plasters the most real smile that he can muster up onto his face before he finally speaks. “I would absolutely be so delighted if you graced our party with your presence.”

The amusement is evident on Minho’s face as the words leave Seungmin’s lips. “I suppose I can make some time in my schedule to visit a few fans.” 

“Oh, maybe you can sign some autographs while you’re there,” Seungmin plays along, clasping his hands together like a hopeful fan. “The oh-so-amazing Lee Minho coming to  _ my  _ party, I just can’t believe it’s real!”

“Careful, you’re awfully close to boosting my ego.” Minho manages to speak through his giggles and  _ damn it _ he’s really fucking cute. 

“That’s called a crush,” Jisung jumps in calmly, picking his iced coffee up from the ground and taking a sip. 

“It’s called a joke. Don’t get too excited, Minho.” Seungmin retorts. 

“Damn, I thought my lifelong dream of Kim Seungmin having a crush on me was finally coming true. Guess I’ll just have to keep wishing at 11:11 every night.” Minho pretends to wipe a tear. “Should I bring anything to this spectacular birthday bash?”

“Alcohol! Lots of it.” Jisung shouts immediately. Seungmin glances at him cautiously. “Come on! It’s been almost two months since I’ve gotten drunk, I deserve it for my birthday.”

“Fine, fine. You’ve done well this semester, I suppose we can throw you a bone,” Seungmin gives in, lifting his shoulders into another careless shrug. 

“Sounds like a plan! I’ll be your alcohol plug for the evening. Text me your preferences, yeah?”

“I’m on it.” Jisung shoots finger guns in Minho’s direction as he reaches to grab his phone that was laying on top of his backpack. “I’ll send you the details about the party, too.”

“Perfect. I’ll see you both then.” Jisung hums in agreement, too focused on making sure he doesn’t leave out any of his favorite drinks in the text he’s already started writing to Minho. 

“We’ll see you then,” Seungmin nods and he nearly melts when Minho shoots him a wink before turning back around to walk to wherever he was heading. The younger boy looks at his best friend to check if he saw the interaction and sighs when he sees Jisung still typing. Does it really take that long to make a short list of alcohol preferences?

“You’re welcome, by the way,” Jisung mutters before he finally hits send on the message. 

“You two text now?” Seungmin questions to change the subject. He knows that if he kept  _ that _ conversation going it would inevitably lead back to Jisung’s theory that Seungmin has a massive crush on Minho. 

“Not necessarily. You remember Chan, right? Turns out he’s super close with Minho. He came over one time when Binnie and I went to Chan’s apartment and we talked a bit, he gave me his number but we don’t really text a lot or anything.” 

“And you just weren’t going to tell me?”

“Why would I tell you? I thought you didn’t like him,” Jisung smirks knowingly and Seungmin scoffs. 

He stands from the ground, wiping away any leftover strands of grass that might be lingering on his jeans. “I have to get to class.”

“You’re avoiding your feelings,” Jisung says teasingly as Seungmin reaches down to grab his backpack. 

“I have no feelings to avoid,” Seungmin responds using the same tone. “Are you going to be at the apartment when I get back?”

“Yeah, I should be. I’m going to hang out with Changbin for a little bit but I should be back before your classes are over, why?” 

“I just miss hanging out, we should order dinner and watch movies tonight,” Seungmin suggests and Jisung slaps his hand over his heart in a joking manner.

“Minnie, you wanna hang out with me?” Jisung smiles and Seungmin groans in response. 

“See? I was trying to be nice and you ruined it.”

“Fine. I’ll order the food so we can eat whenever you get back.” Jisung brings his finger up to cross over his heart. “Promise.”

Seungmin smiles. “And no boy talk.”

Jisung whines as soon as the words leave Seungmin’s mouth. “A little bit of boy talk. Then we can forget about it and watch movies.”

The younger boy glares at Jisung but he stands no chance against his best friend’s puppy dog eyes. “The tiniest bit of boy talk, got it?”

“Got it! I’m excited, Min!” Jisung practically screams as Seungmin begins making his way to his class. 

Seungmin chuckles at the way nearly everyone else sitting around them turns to glare at Jisung. “See you tonight, Sung.”

. . .

Seungmin enters the apartment around 5:45 and is greeted with the sight of Jisung laying on the couch lazily, one of his legs hanging off the side. “Hey, Ji. How was hanging out with Changbin?” He asks as he slides his shoes off by the door. 

“Someone’s eager to get to the boy talk.” Jisung teases and sits up to make room for Seungmin on the couch. “It was really good. I’m sorry the food isn’t here yet, I ordered it when I got back but it’ll be here in a few minutes.”

Seungmin smiles at how sincere his friend sounds. “It’s okay. We can boy talk until the food gets here and then we’re done.”

“Deal,” Jisung agrees and motions for Seungmin to come sit with him. Seungmin makes his way over to the couch, tossing his backpack lightly onto the ground near the loveseat that was situated perpendicular to the larger couch. 

“So, tell me about your date.”

“First of all, not a date. Second of all, when I said boy talk I meant we were talking about Minho.” Jisung speaks quickly, hoping that somehow it would make his friend less upset. 

Seungmin groans and collapses dramatically onto the couch. “Jisung, why?” He whines and Jisung just shushes him and pulls him closer. 

“We’re working on feelings today, Minnie. We’ll just talk a little bit, okay? One step at a time.” 

“Sung, seriously, there’s nothing for me to talk about.” Seungmin tries to convince him but Jisung only lays back on the couch again, wrapping his arms around his best friend’s waist and resting his head on his shoulder. 

“Seungmin, can you please be honest with me? Just for like the next five minutes?”

The younger boy sighs and brings his hand up to play with Jisung’s hair. He’s obviously nervous and playing with his friend’s hair calms him, not that Jisung would mind anyway. “Okay, honest Seungmin until the food gets here.”

“Perfect. Now, what’s the deal with Minho? Honestly.” 

“Honestly?” Seungmin asks, taking a deep breath before beginning. “I’m not too sure. I think he’s cute and funny and I feel happy when he’s around. I guess there’s potential for it to become a crush, but I don’t think it’s reached that point yet.”

“So why won’t you spend time with him and see if it develops into a crush?” Jisung questions, allowing his finger to trace shapes into Seungmin’s side. 

Seungmin remains silent for a moment. “I guess I’m scared?” He admits but it comes out as more of a question. “I just don’t want to get hurt and I don’t want to put so much time and effort into something just for it to not work out and I don’t want to convince myself that he likes me like an idiot when he really doesn’t. Not liking him at all is just the safe option.”

“Okay, I understand wanting safe, seriously. Sometimes you just have to take the risk, though. I’ve been hurt so many times, Min, but I’m still trying. You never know what happiness you’ll find along the way. And I’m not just saying this because I want you to date someone so that we can go on cute double dates, I just genuinely think that this could end up working out.” 

Seungmin sighs again and pulls Jisung even closer to him. “Thank you, Ji. For everything.”

Even though Jisung might be a handful to deal with sometimes, Seungmin has always been beyond grateful for the boy. Seungmin tended to be too serious and Jisung was the one person that could always help him relax. Jisung could be serious too, though. Whenever Seungmin needed someone to talk to, much like right now, he knew he could always go to Jisung. And even though he had to babysit him practically the entire year last year, he had to admit that there was never a dull moment with Jisung as his roommate. He seriously wouldn’t trade his best friend for anything. 

“Love you, Minnie.”

Seungmin smiles and squeezes Jisung’s waist. “Love you too, Sung.” Neither of the boys bothers to move when they hear the doorbell ring. “Stop being gross and sappy and go answer the door.” Seungmin scrunches his nose up in fake disgust and pushes Jisung away from him playfully. 

“I really have to do everything around here, huh,” Jisung complains as he gets up from his comfortable spot on the couch to go get the food. 

. . .

Here’s the thing about Kim Seungmin. When he hates something, he really hates it. And it’s considered a rare occasion if he ever budges on that hatred. 

But here’s another thing about Kim Seungmin. When he feels, he feels strongly. There’s not much guessing when it comes to Seungmin having feelings, which is why he tends to avoid it. The one thing that could single handedly wash away his hatred for something was his feelings. 

So it’s really no surprise that Seungmin finds himself in the school library multiple times a week hoping for spare interactions with Minho. 

At first it was completely random, he would just come on any day and hope that Minho was there. Eventually, with the help of his randomized library visits and Jisung teasing him about seeing Minho working, Seungmin was able to gain a loose understanding of Minho’s work schedule. 

Minho never worked on Mondays. Seungmin isn’t sure why, maybe it was his busiest day with classes. He worked every Tuesday and Thursday in the afternoon and every Wednesday in the mornings. Fridays were a wild card, sometimes he worked and sometimes he didn’t. And most weekends he didn’t work, Seungmin assumed if he was working on a weekend it’s because he picked up someone else’s shift. 

Now it’s a Thursday. The Thursday before the big birthday bash, to be exact. Seungmin has been settled in at the table hidden in the back corner that Jisung showed him the first time they came to the library together. It became his regular spot. He would come sit back here every time he showed up at the library and Minho knew exactly where to find him. Seungmin figured this was a good plan because then Minho has to make the first move, but Seungmin is still putting in an effort by showing up. 

“Hey,” Minho whispers from just behind the younger boy. His right hand is on the table, keeping him balanced as he leans into Seungmin’s back to see what he’s working on. Seungmin tenses up at the proximity, chills covering his entire body when Minho whispers into his ear. “No physics today?” He asks, taking a seat next to Seungmin and setting his backpack on the floor between the two of them. Seungmin concludes that he had just finished his shift. 

“Nope, I already finished my assignment that’s due tomorrow, I guess I have a really good professor,” Seungmin speaks with a smug smile on his face. 

“Or a really good tutor.” Minho motions to himself. 

Seungmin scrunches up his nose and shakes his head. “No, must be the professor.”

“Wow, I see how it is.” Minho jokes and scoots his chair so that it’s closer to the younger boy. “What are you working on?”

“Just a design. It’s not for a class or anything, I just like to mess around with ideas in my free time.”

“You’re spending your free time in the library?” Minho questions with a raised eyebrow and a knowing smirk. “Most people like to spend their free time, I don’t know, at home. Maybe at the park. Hanging out with friends. What brings you here?”

Seungmin curses himself in his head for giving Minho this kind of leverage. “Maybe I just like the library.”

“Hm,” Minho begins, obviously not convinced. “You know, Jisung told me something interesting a while ago.”

“Like what?”

“Like the fact that you hate coming to the library. He said he had to force you to come with him the first time I saw you guys here. Something about the library being your arch-nemesis? But you spend your free time here?” Minho leans forward, his elbows resting on the table. 

“Well, what do you do in your free time?” Seungmin asks defensively to avoid the topic. 

Minho chuckles at the obvious attempt to change the subject but decides to drop it. “I really love to dance. On Monday nights I actually teach a children’s dance class at a dance studio downtown. We have this big showcase in November, you should come out for it.” Minho speaks with twinkling eyes and Seungmin knows there’s no way he can say no to that. 

“I’d love to.” Seungmin smiles and his heart skips a beat when he makes eye contact with the older boy. 

Minho reaches out with his pinky and Seungmin laughs a little bit at the notion. “You have to pinky promise.”

Seungmin shakes his head but links their pinkies together regardless. “Promise,” he speaks with a smile before hesitantly pulling their fingers apart. “Uh, can I ask you a question?” Seungmin asks, closing his sketchbook. 

“Yeah, of course.”

“Why’d you agree to come to the birthday thing?”

Minho’s smile immediately drops when he hears the question, his eyes widening a bit. “Oh, I’m sorry. Do you not want me to be there?”

“No, no!” Seungmin panics, reaching forward without thinking to grab Minho’s hand. The two boys both look at their hands. Minho doesn’t seem to be pulling away and Seungmin has to stop himself from overthinking again. He doesn’t want to get his hopes up, but maybe Minho wanted to hold his hand. After a while, though, Seungmin slowly pulls his own hand away and clears his throat. “I mean, if you want to be there then I want you to be there. I was genuinely just wondering why you agreed to come to hang out with a bunch of guys you don’t really know.”

“Well, I guess I had a few reasons to say yes. First of all, we’re celebrating your birthday and I don’t want to miss that. Second of all, Jisung really wanted me to go and we’ve kind of become friends in a way so why not? Third of all, if we’re going to end up dating then I should make a good impression on your friends, yeah?”

“Huh?” Seungmin asks as his body tenses, face heating up from Minho’s final reason for coming to the party. 

When Minho begins giggling, though, Seungmin can feel his shoulders relax again. “It’s a joke, Seungmin. I just like to make new friends.”

“Oh, yeah.” Seungmin laughs along awkwardly. “Well, Jisung is super excited that you’re actually coming. He’s convinced that you’re, like, the coolest guy ever.”

“And what about you?” Minho questions boldly. 

“I definitely don’t think you’re the coolest guy ever.”

Minho laughs again, shaking his head. “I meant are you excited that I’m coming?”

“Oh, well,” Seungmin pauses, biting down on the skin of his lip nervously before responding honestly. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”

“Good,” Minho says simply, a gentle smile on his face. If he keeps being this cute Seungmin is definitely screwed. “I’m going to head out, I have a huge project to work on. Do you want me to take you to your apartment?”

Seungmin watches as Minho stands from his seat and picks his backpack up from the floor. “Sure, yeah. That’d be great.” He offers a genuine smile before carefully sliding his sketchbook into his backpack and standing up as well. 

And on the walk to Minho’s car, different thoughts flood the two boys’ brains. 

Seungmin’s mind is a mess of nerves because it’s the first time Minho has driven him anywhere and even though they’ve grown comfortable with each other, this somehow seems like the next step in their relationship. 

Minho’s mind is much happier. He figured that Seungmin was coming to the library to see him but when Jisung told him that Seungmin hated being in the library, it all made sense. Seungmin really did spend his free time in one of the places that he hated most and it was all for Minho. Even though it wasn’t exactly confirmation that Seungmin reciprocated his feelings, this also felt like the next step in their relationship. 

And Minho couldn’t possibly be any happier. 

. . .

It is finally party night and Seungmin finds himself being more nervous than he would ever like to admit. 

The number of times that he asked Jisung for advice on his outfit was embarrassing, to be honest. The younger boy found it much easier to ignore the smug looks from his roommate now that he admitted to maybe possibly having feelings for Minho in the future. Still, Jisung liked to tease him about it though. 

Minho was one of the last people to arrive at Jisung and Seungmin’s shared apartment. It was probably because he had to stop on his way to pick up all of the alcohol for the evening. 

Seungmin thought about Minho the entire time they waited, though. He can’t think of a proper reason for him to be overthinking so much. Well, actually he can. Again, he just doesn’t want to admit it. There are so many things that could possibly happen tonight. Last time they were together at a party and Seungmin was “slightly” under the influence he ended up flirting. What would happen if he let himself get drunk again? He could accidentally admit his feelings to Minho and completely destroy whatever friendship they have.

Jisung had heard these concerns from Seungmin before and honestly he didn’t get it. He thought it was obvious that Minho likes Seungmin and Seungmin likes Minho, but apparently neither of them can see it. As much as he would like to intervene, he decided long ago that it’s not really his place so he decided to settle for subtly pushing the two together. 

Tonight was obviously just another point in Jisung’s masterplan. He honestly always wanted to invite Minho to their birthday gathering and that part of the plan ended up working all too well. Now all he could do was hope for the two boys to actually interact throughout the night which shouldn’t be too hard because Minho doesn’t know anyone else too well and Seungmin would feel too bad if he left him alone the entire night.

When they hear a knock from the front door, Seungmin is quick to stand from his seat and walk over to answer it. Once he opens the door, he’s greeted with the sight of an extremely pretty Minho and a totally not suspicious bag, presumably filled with alcohol for the night. 

The older boy has on a leather jacket and Seungmin almost loses it at that moment. The sleeves of the jacket are rolled up and he has a white shirt on under it. Seungmin thinks he’s wearing eyeliner as well, but he’s in the middle of avoiding eye contact so he can’t really tell. “Hey,” Seungmin manages to breathe out when Minho subtly clears his throat. 

“Hey, I brought the alcohol,” Minho smiles and lifts the bag in his hand. Jisung practically sprints towards the door when he hears the word alcohol. 

“Minho, you’re the absolute best. We are best friends now, okay?” Jisung gently takes the bag from his hand and holds his free hand up for a high five. Minho simply accepts the high five with a smile and watches as Jisung runs into the kitchen. 

“I suppose he’s happy about the alcohol.”

“Oh, yeah. It’s been a while for him,” Seungmin laughs and steps aside to motion for Minho to come in. He can hear the commotion behind him of everyone moving into the kitchen to help themselves to drinks but he can’t be bothered to turn around. “Did you want to get a drink?”

“I’ll get one in a minute,” Minho speaks timidly and Seungmin notices that he’s fidgeting with his hands. “Is there anywhere we could go? A little more private?”

“Wow, already wanna get me alone?” Seungmin teases and grabs his jacket from the coat rack by the door. Minho laughs quietly at the joke, still tapping his fingers on nothing in particular. “We can go out to the balcony if that works for you?” The younger boy asks as he slides on his shoes. 

“Yeah, perfect.” Minho nods and Seungmin slides his jacket on. He utters a  _ let’s go  _ and takes hold of Minho’s wrist to lead him towards the back door. He can’t help but roll his eyes when he hears the catcalls and whistles from his best friends in the kitchen. They were all much too sober to be acting like this. 

Seungmin closes the door behind him as soon as both of the boys make it out. “So, what’s up?”

“Uh,” Minho begins, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jacket. “Well, here’s the thing. I felt bad about missing your birthday so I wanted to get you something but I didn’t know how you felt about gifts so if you don’t like it or don’t want it you can just let me know and I’ll take it back, yeah?”

“Minho, you really didn’t have to get me anything.” 

“Yeah. I knew that but I wanted to get you something anyway.” Minho explains, but it sounds more like he’s trying to convince himself of something. 

“Well, I’m sure I’ll love it.”

“But if you don’t then you’ll tell me? And you’ll be honest?”

“I will.”

“Because it’s seriously okay if you don’t want it.”

Seungmin rolls his eyes dramatically and holds out his pinky for Minho to latch his onto. The older boy breaks into a smile, the nerves seeming to melt away, and pulls his hand out of his jacket to link their pinkies together. “Promise.”

“Okay,” Minho speaks through an exhale and slowly takes his other hand out of his jacket pocket. When Seungmin glances down at what he just pulled out of his pocket, he notices the flat square box. Before Minho can change his mind and take it back, he pushes his hand forward towards the younger boy. 

Seungmin hesitantly takes the box in his own hands, as if he’s giving Minho another opportunity to take it back. For a long moment, he only stares at it. “Thank you.”

“You don’t even know what it is,” Minho laughs softly. 

“Yeah, but you didn’t have to get me anything at all, so thank you.” Minho offers a genuine smile and tilts his head towards the box, motioning for Seungmin to open it up. 

Seungmin redirects his attention to the box, shortly pulling the lid off to reveal a dainty charm bracelet. The first charm in the middle was a small, cursive ‘S’ that he couldn’t stop himself from smiling at. 

Then he caught sight of the other charm. A little silver solo cup. He laughs quietly as he reaches out to run his finger over the small charm. 

“I know we haven’t been,” Minho pauses before adding emphasis on the next word, “friends for too long but I thought that maybe as time goes on we can keep adding memories?” He asks for Seungmin’s approval. 

Seungmin just nods with a bright smile on his face. “Absolutely.”

Minho visibly relaxes when Seungmin agrees. The younger boy pulls the bracelet out of the piece of foam surrounding it when Minho finally speaks up again. “Here, let me put it on you.” He offers and Seungmin perks up even more if it’s possible. 

Minho holds his hand out and Seungmin gently places the bracelet into his open palm. He holds his arm out, wrist facing upwards and Minho unlatches the bracelet. “It’s really beautiful,” Seungmin mumbles, watching as Minho secures the latch once it’s placed comfortably around his wrist. 

The older boy glances up for a split second, not wanting to catch Seungmin’s attention. “Yeah, I think so too.” He speaks bashfully and pulls his hand back, letting it brush against Seungmin’s momentarily. 

Both of the boys just stand there, watching each other carefully. The moment of silence should be extremely awkward but there’s no kind of tension between them. They just stand and watch. Admire each other silently.

“Maybe we should head back in,” Seungmin speaks in a daze, the words coming out slowly. 

“Yeah, it's kind of chilly out here.” Minho smiles and follows Seungmin as he makes his way to the back door and leads them both inside. 

Within an hour and a half, nearly everyone was drunk. Nearly everyone meaning everyone except for Seungmin. He can’t help it. As much as he wants to drink, he has decided that he definitely has trust issues with drunk Seungmin. Especially with Minho around. 

Being sober tonight isn’t so bad, though. He’s learning a lot about his new friends’ drunk personas and loving every single second of it. 

First of all, Changbin seems to be a giggly drunk. This is especially odd to Seungmin because Changbin just doesn’t seem like the type to giggle. He’s only ever actually hung out with the older boy a few times but he’s never seen him like  _ this _ . 

He’s made himself comfortable in Jisung’s lap, their fingers intertwined loosely. Seungmin knows that Jisung enjoys all the attention he can get whenever he’s drunk, but apparently Changbin is a fan of affection as well. 

It seems that he’s not the only one, though. Seungmin soon discovers that Minho is quite clingy when he’s drunk as well. He’s having a hard time deciding if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. He’s leaning towards a good thing.

Especially when Minho catches Seungmin’s wrist as he’s walking by and gently tugs him down to sit in the space on the couch between his legs. Seungmin lets out a surprised gasp as he makes contact with the couch and a few seconds later, Minho’s chest. Minho leans forward, though, wrapping his arms around Seungmin’s waist and resting his chin on the younger boy’s shoulder to continue talking to the rest of the group that seems completely unfazed by the set of events unfolding in front of them. 

Seungmin is  _ really  _ leaning towards a good thing. 

He can’t stop thinking about how grateful he is that every other person in the room is too busy being drunk and flirting with each other and laughing their asses off at nothing to point out the way that Seungmin’s face has gone completely red. 

The night continued that way, it turns out Seungmin had nothing to be worried about. Everyone got along perfectly fine, the apartment didn’t get messed up at all, and even though he hates to admit it, he realized that maybe he definitely does have feelings for Minho. 

As the night comes to an end, Jisung and Changbin end up going to Jisung’s room to pass out for the night while Felix and Hyunjin lay down on the couches they usually sleep on when they end up spending the night. 

“Um, you can sleep in my room if you want.” Seungmin offers Minho awkwardly as everyone begins winding down for the night. 

Minho takes a moment before he finally responds with a simple, “Yeah.” 

So Seungmin leads Minho back to his room and motions to his bed. Minho falls down onto the bed without a second thought and lets out a dramatic exhale. “Make yourself comfortable.” Seungmin smiles, turning on the lamp beside his bed and walking over to his closet to pull out the extra blankets he kept in there. 

“What are you doing?” Minho questions, sitting up from his spot on Seungmin’s bed.

“Getting some blankets, I’m just gonna sleep on the floor if that’s alright with you. I can always go out to the living room.”

“No.” Minho speaks firmly and Seungmin raises an eyebrow at his response. “I’m not gonna take your bed from you. I’ll sleep by the wall and you can sleep on the other side. I don’t move in my sleep much so I won’t invade your space or anything.”

Seungmin’s face immediately heats up at the offer but he knows Minho won’t take no for an answer. “Yeah, okay.”

Minho smiles happily and gets comfortable under the bedsheets. Seungmin lifts up the sheets and gets into the bed as well. As soon as he gets under the sheets he realizes that maybe he should’ve changed into pajamas but he really can’t find the energy to do that anymore. “Thank you for inviting me, by the way. I had fun.”

“I’m glad. My friends seem to like you so I’m sure you’ll be invited to hang around with us more.” Seungmin manages to speak before a yawn escapes from his mouth. He leans over to turn the lamp off beside his bed and lays back down, facing the ceiling. 

“Everyone’s really nice, I’d love to spend time with you all again,” Minho speaks lazily, on the edge of falling asleep. Seungmin just hums in response, too tired to try to keep the conversation going. 

It should be awkward, the two of them laying on different sides of the bed in complete silence to fall asleep but it’s not. 

Seungmin actually thinks it might be his best birthday celebration yet. 

. . .

A couple of weeks later, Seungmin finds himself in a predicament. He knows that sometimes he can be kind of dramatic, but he genuinely thinks his life might be over this time.

It was a bad habit, to be honest, the way that Seungmin and Jisung practically never locked the door to their apartment. To be fair, it was a very trustworthy apartment complex full of college students and they never felt threatened or thought that anyone would try to rob them, so they never locked their door and they never took their keys with them anywhere. It makes sense in their minds but Seungmin is quickly discovering that it makes no sense to literally everyone else. 

Seungmin likes to think of at least one plan before he decides to panic and luckily he still has two good friends that he would be able to stay with while Jisung is out of town visiting his family. The only problem is those two friends are dating and they live together and they are  _ also  _ out of town this weekend taking a “boyfriend’s trip.” Has Seungmin ever mentioned how much he hates love? They also don’t hesitate to let Seungmin know just how dumb he and Jisung are for never locking their apartment door. Has Seungmin ever mentioned how much he hates his friends?

So now it’s nearly eleven o’clock on a Friday night and the brown-haired boy is sitting in his usual spot in the library. The library on campus stays open twenty-four hours on the weekends and Seungmin genuinely considers finding a hidden study room to catch some sleep in. 

He lets out a sigh as he hits the next video button after the current YouTube video he’s watching nears the end. 

Only about two minutes into the video, Seungmin is slouched over and beginning to daze off when he feels a gentle tap on his shoulder. He immediately jumps back into a sitting position and looks up at whoever just disrupted his almost nap. His day has been far from lovely so he’s ready to tell off whoever it is until he sees the all-too-familiar head of freshly-dyed red hair. “Oh, hey.”

Minho laughs quietly from above Seungmin before he responds. “Hey, this is unusual. You’re not typically a night dweller.”

“It’s a long story,” Seungmin mumbles and runs his hands over his face. “And you’d probably laugh at me if I told you.”

“Try me. I need a good laugh.” Minho offers a friendly smile as he sits on the table. 

Seungmin moves his laptop to the side to make more room for Minho. “Well, you know Jisung, right?”

“Mhm,” Minho hums.

“Well, he kind of went out of town to visit his parents, and before he left I guess he thought it would be a wonderful idea to lock the apartment door even though we never do that.”

“You never lock your apartment door?” Minho questions and is quickly met with a harsh glare from Seungmin. He’s just as quick to throw his hands up in surrender.

“Thank you. So basically we never lock our apartment door so I never bring my key with me because I could lose it and there’s no point carrying it around and now I’m locked out of my apartment. And before you even ask, yes I did ask Felix and Hyunjin if I could stay with them but they’re both out of town together and they were really my last options so now I’m just stuck and I honestly might just sleep here,” Seungmin rambles quickly, his words running together as Minho just sits and takes in the entire situation.

The older boy is silent for a moment before he finally speaks up. “You can stay with me if you really need somewhere.” 

“Oh,” Seungmin breathes. “It’s okay, really. I can find a study room or something. I don’t want to disturb you and your roommate or anything.”

“Lucky for you, I don’t have a roommate. I also just checked with myself and he’s totally fine with you staying over.” Seungmin bites his lip in hesitation and Minho is quick to speak up again. “Seriously, I don’t mind at all. What kind of friend would I be if I let you sleep in the library?”

Seungmin taps his fingers on the table before lifting his shoulders into a weak shrug. “Okay, but if you get tired of me then you tell me and I’ll sleep here. I really don’t mind.”

Minho holds out his pinky and Seungmin immediately breaks into a wide smile. Once he links their pinkies together, Minho speaks up. “Promise.” Their fingers only break apart because Minho jumps up from his spot on the table and lets out a strange noise of excitement. “This is going to be so exciting. I enjoy spending time with you, Seungmin.”

Seungmin has to fight back a smile this time. “Yeah, me too.”

So Seungmin gathers his belongings and the two boys take off to go to Minho’s apartment. 

You could definitely say that Seungmin is extremely nervous. This is his guest time ever going to the older boy’s apartment. And of course, his mind couldn’t help but drift off to the possibilities of everything that could ever happen between the two of them. 

That’s not what he wanted his mind to be on, though. He tries extremely hard to keep his mind off of it during their ride. He decides to focus instead on the music playing softly throughout the car. And maybe how pretty Minho looks with the moonlight shining into the car and lighting up his face. And a little bit on how his heart rate definitely sped up just from looking at the older boy. 

When the two of them arrive in the parking garage, Seungmin doesn’t make any effort to move. “Well, we can either go inside or just stay in my car.” Minho jokes and Seungmin laughs quietly in response. 

“Yeah, sorry. I just got caught in my thoughts, we can head inside.” Seungmin apologizes sheepishly and unbuckles his seatbelt. 

Minho smiles as he pulls his key out of the ignition and unbuckles his own seatbelt as well. The boys both exit the car at the same time and Seungmin waits for Minho to pull his backpack out of the trunk and walk around to the other side of the car. 

“So, is Jisung gone for the entire weekend?” Minho questions in an attempt to get a conversation going as he makes sure his car is locked and begins to lead Seungmin through the parking garage. 

“He was going to stay at home for the whole weekend, but he said he’s going to come back tomorrow now that I’m locked out,” Seungmin explains and feels his cheeks heating up as they once again discuss the stupid situation he had gotten himself into. 

“I wish I ever had a roommate that was that nice. My first two roommates were absolutely awful, which explains why I’m living on my own now.” The older boy smiles as they approach the elevator and he presses the button to go up. 

“Jisung and I have been friends forever, we really care for each other a lot,” Seungmin begins as the doors open and the two boys step inside. “Even though he’s super annoying.”

Minho laughs as Seungmin pins the insult at the end of his compliment. “You guys have a great friendship. I’m really glad you have someone like him.” He speaks genuinely and reaches out to press the button for them to go up to the eighth floor.

The two boys stand in comfortable silence as the elevator shifts and moves up to the top floor of the apartment building. “Your apartment complex seems much nicer than ours,” Seungmin speaks up as they step out into the hallway once the elevator opens.

“You and Jisung have a nice apartment complex. Your apartment is really comfortable as well, it’s very welcoming and cozy.”

“Well, I’m really glad that we can make you feel that way. The other boys really like having you around.” Seungmin speaks with a genuine smile.

Minho grins happily as he begins walking to the end of the hallway where his apartment is located. “I’m glad to hear that, I really like your friends.” 

When they finally arrive at Minho’s one-bedroom apartment and the older boy unlocks the door and opens it, Seungmin finds himself shocked by the space.

He really doesn’t know what he was expecting, but he knows that this wasn’t it. 

It wasn’t that he thought Minho was going to be messy, but he sure didn’t expect his apartment to be so neat and tidy. Now that he’s in Minho’s apartment he feels a little embarrassed about the somewhat messy state of his own apartment whenever Minho came over for the party. 

“Come on in, make yourself comfortable.” Minho smiles and Seungmin steps inside slowly. “Are you hungry? I can make something if you haven’t eaten.”

Seungmin shakes his head immediately. “No, that’s alright. I got dinner a while ago before I came to the library. I’m honestly just super tired.”

“I can give you some clothes to sleep in unless you typically sleep in your jeans.” Minho teases and Seungmin glances down at his jeans before looking back up at the older boy. 

“Something to sleep in would be great,” Seungmin mumbles timidly and Minho lets a quiet laugh fall from his lips. The older boy locks the door behind them and slides off his shoes. Seungmin slides his off as well and moves them to the side so that they’re not blocking the door. 

Minho smiles once the younger boy finishes moving his shoes. “Come with me.”

Seungmin follows Minho through his apartment. They walk through the living room and Seungmin makes a mental note of the two extremely comfortable-looking couches. Honestly, they wouldn’t be so bad to sleep on. 

The door to Minho’s bedroom was cracked and whenever the two boys step inside, Seungmin is greeted with yet another clean and tidy space. Seungmin stands awkwardly by the door, fidgeting with his fingers as Minho walks to his closet to pull out a T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. He walks back over to Seungmin and hands him the clothes with a large grin on his face. “Those should fit you.”

Seungmin holds the clothes with both of his hands and bows his head slightly before mumbling a soft thank you. “Where should I…?” The younger boy trails off. 

“I’m about to go take a shower so you can just change in here.” Minho offers another comforting smile to relax the younger boy as he heads into the bathroom immediately. 

Seungmin waits until he hears the shower water running to actually start changing his clothes. Once he’s in Minho’s clothes he takes note of the way they’re a little bit baggy, then he imagines how big they must be on the slightly smaller but older boy. 

He doesn’t really know what to do from here so he settles for looking around a little bit. One of the first things he finds beside Minho’s bed is a picture frame with a photo of him surrounded by a group of kids. Seungmin comes to the conclusion that it must be that children’s dance class Minho mentioned a while ago. They must mean a lot to him if he has their picture on his bedside table. 

He also takes note of the other picture frame with a photo of Minho with three cats. He’s holding one in his arms while the other two seem to be playing with his legs. Seungmin smiles at the sweetness of the photo before directing his attention elsewhere. 

Seungmin makes his way over to Minho’s desk where he sees three textbooks opened up and different pages of notes sprawled across his desk. He comes to the conclusion that Minho must’ve been studying before work and might have been planning to study some more whenever he came back. 

Seungmin’s too busy looking over Minho’s physics notes and wondering how he can understand any of it to notice the shower water has stopped running and Minho has already made his way out of the bathroom. “Suddenly a physics genius?” Minho teases when he realizes Seungmin’s interest in his notes. 

Seungmin jumps slightly at the sound of Minho’s voice and turns around quickly to face the older boy. “Quite the opposite, actually. I was wondering how you even understand any of that stuff.” 

Minho simply hums in response, shrugging his shoulders as he begins getting ready to get in bed. “It takes a while sometimes, I study a lot. Sometimes I miss out on sleep but that rarely happens. Maybe I’m just a genius.” Seungmin laughs quietly and remains standing by Minho’s desk while he climbs into bed. Minho notices Seungmin’s lack of movement and simply pats the spot beside him in his bed. 

“You don’t mind?” Seungmin asks shyly and Minho chuckles a bit. 

“Wouldn’t be the first time we shared a bed.”

He’s got a point there. So Seungmin makes his way over to Minho’s bed, perhaps looking a little bit too happy about it. 

Seungmin slides into the bed, keeping a decent amount of distance between the two boys, and Minho simply lays down, grabbing the remote from his bedside table to turn off the lights. When Minho doesn’t mention anything about the distance between the two of them, Seungmin takes the opportunity to slide a bit closer. 

Yes, it’s a bit of a lame attempt to show that he would maybe enjoy being closer tonight than they were at Seungmin’s apartment but he would rather die than actually admit that. 

After turning off the lights, Minho places the remote on his bedside table once again and listens to the soft ruffle of the sheets as Seungmin lays down beside him. It doesn’t take long for Seungmin to begin shuffling again. He tries not to make it obvious that he’s using his shuffling as an excuse to inch closer and closer to the older boy but Minho sees right through it. 

He chuckles quietly before turning onto his side and wrapping his arm comfortably around Seungmin’s waist. The younger boy inhales sharply at the gesture but finds himself quickly relaxing. “I’m pretty sure this is what you were trying to hint at but if I’m wrong, by all means, tell me to back off.” 

Minho pauses and waits for a response but is only met with silence from Seungmin. Minho can’t help but smile when Seungmin doesn’t tell him to back off and takes a deep breath as if he’s trying to process the fact that this is actually happening. “Were you planning on studying more tonight?” Seungmin finally questions after a few moments of silence. 

“Mhmm,” Minho begins and brings his head down to rest on Seungmin’s shoulder, “I think I like this better, though.”

“You could’ve studied, I wouldn’t have minded staying up a bit later.”

“You’ve had a long day,” Minho breaks into a yawn mid-sentence, “I can study in the morning.”

Seungmin smiles slightly before responding. “You seem tired. Get some sleep.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Minho mumbles and closes his eyes. “You need to sleep, too.”

“I will,” Seungmin speaks sleepily and Minho can only manage to hum in response. It only takes a couple of minutes for the older boy to fall asleep. Seungmin assumes he’s had a long day of studying and working so he’s more than happy to hear the light, steady breathing in his ear telling him that Minho had fallen asleep peacefully. 

That night he learns that Minho is a bit of a heavy sleeper because before Seungmin falls asleep, he manages to loosen himself from Minho’s grasp enough to text his roommate to enjoy the rest of the weekend with his family. 

. . .

That weekend ended up being a bit of a turning point for both of the boys. Seungmin was ready to finally admit to himself that he has feelings for Minho but the thought of actually saying that to Minho terrified him. Minho, on the other hand, felt that Seungmin was finally opening up to him. 

Of course, Seungmin lied to the older boy and said that Jisung got caught up with his family so Seungmin was “stuck” at Minho’s the entire weekend. However, Jisung wasted no time texting Minho to ask what the two boys were up to and why Seungmin suddenly didn’t want Jisung to come back early anymore. 

So that brings them to this point. Seungmin and Minho had been getting along even better for the past two weeks. Minho would be invited to Seungmin and Jisung’s apartment to hang out with the rest of their friends any time they had a get-together. Their tutoring sessions somehow ended up being at Minho’s apartment rather than the library. Sometimes Seungmin would end up staying the night and the next morning the two boys would sit on Minho’s bay window and have mindless conversations while drinking coffee and watching the morning traffic. 

At this point, Minho likes to believe that he knows Seungmin really well. And it’s true, he does. So whenever Seungmin ignores his first text from four hours ago, Minho doesn’t think it’s much of a big deal. It was pretty early in the day and even though the younger boy didn’t like to sleep in, Minho knew that he had a long night working on a huge project. 

The next time he texts is about three hours later, around two in the afternoon. He had asked if Seungmin wanted to get lunch together because there was no way that he wasn’t awake by now and maybe he just didn’t see the notification for Minho’s first text. Seungmin has his notifications on for nearly every social media app so he typically wakes up to a lot of notifications and it’s understandable for Minho’s to get lost (even though Seungmin usually mindlessly scrolled through his social media notifications until he found the good morning text that Minho sent him every single morning).

Minho tries one more time around 5:30. He asks if Seungmin is okay or if he had done something to upset him. He’d rather talk about it with Seungmin if there was some kind of conflict between the two than have Seungmin ignore him. But then again, Minho can’t remember doing anything that could possibly upset the younger boy. 

He gives that text about four hours before he decides to text Jisung instead. 

**Lee Know**

hey, is seungmin with you? he hasn’t answered my texts all day and i just wanna make sure he’s okay

**Han Ji**

nah, i woke up this morning and he was already gone. didn’t leave a note or anything, i think he’s stressed about his project

Minho sighs as he reads the text message. Could Seungmin really have spent the entire day in the fashion building? 

**Lee Know**

thanks ji

**Han Ji**

gonna go find him?

Minho pauses when that message comes through. Is he really that predictable? Or was he just that whipped?

**Han Ji**

c’monnnnnn, we all know how you feel about him lee minho

**Lee Know**

we all?

**Han Ji**

okay, maybe not him but he’s oblivious. if you want him to know you have to tell him. i’ve known him for longer than i can even remember and this is the happiest i’ve ever seen him with anyone. he deserves that happiness and you deserve that happiness, so what are you gonna do about it?

Minho bites his lip, rereading the message multiple times. Maybe Jisung is right. It’s time to put on his big boy pants and finally make a move. 

**Han Ji**

good luck ;)

He hates that Jisung had gotten to know him so well. He also hates that Jisung is so good at inspirational talks because now Minho is already halfway out the door of his apartment to go find Seungmin. 

One thing that he realizes on his journey to find the younger boy is that by the time he makes it to the fashion building it’ll be past ten o’clock. 

Most buildings on campus lock their doors after ten P.M. and you have to swipe in using your school ID card to get into the building. The only problem is Minho isn’t a fashion major so his card won’t work to get into the building. 

Minho quickly creates a plan, though. 

**Big Min**

hey hyunjinnie, want some coffee?

**Hwang Hyunjin**

what do you want

**Big Min**

seungmin has been in the fashion building literally all day and i want to go check on him

**Hwang Hyunjin**

not gonna lie, not really seeing where i come in

**Big Min**

it’s past ten, hyunjin

**Hwang Hyunjin**

oh!!! oh yeahhhhh, sure i’m down for coffee if you’re paying

**Big Min**

bring your student id, what do you want?

**Hwang Hyunjin**

peppermint hot chocolate <3

**Big Min**

i thought you said you wanted coffee

**Hwang Hyunjin**

it’s past ten, i’m not crazy

**Big Min**

you define crazy jinnie

hurry up and meet me at soul <3

Hyunjin was quick to get to the coffee shop. Minho assumes it’s because 1) he’s a little bit too excited about getting free hot chocolate and 2) he wants to get back to his apartment as soon as possible so that he can cuddle with his boyfriend again. 

Regardless, Minho is successful in retrieving Hyunjin’s ID and getting into the fashion building without any suspicions.

When he makes it into the fashion building, it doesn’t take long to find Seungmin. Hyunjin told Minho before he left that Seungmin likes to use the same studio every time he goes. He texted him the studio number and even though it’s his first time in the building, it’s fairly easy to find his way around. 

Once he arrives at the studio, Minho slowly opens up the door so that he doesn’t startle the younger boy. Seungmin doesn’t even seem to notice the fact that someone just walked in, too preoccupied with sticking pins into his nearly completed design that was fit perfectly to the mannequin. 

It’s the first time Minho has ever seen anything that Seungmin designed. Even though he was working on designs most of the time, he was never too keen on sharing his work.

Now that Minho was seeing it, he couldn’t understand why. Seungmin is really talented. Like  _ really  _ talented. Sure, Minho doesn’t know anything about fashion but he knows that Seungmin’s piece was beautiful. 

It was unique, but not too out there. There were so many different aspects but they all fit together perfectly. The light blue that seemed to be the main color for the design reminded him of the sky on a clear, beautiful day. Everything about the piece was so pretty, so perfect, so  _ Seungmin. _

“Hey,” Minho finally speaks up and Seungmin finally snaps out of his trance. 

“Oh, hey.” Seungmin smiles brightly once he sees the boy. Minho swears his heart melts at the action. He has to remind himself that it’s normal to be happy about seeing your friends. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, it’s past ten o’clock and Jisung said you haven’t been at the apartment since before he even woke up. You also haven’t answered any of my texts today, I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Seungmin’s eyes widen as he walks over to a vacant table in the middle room where his phone was buried under a pile of different fabrics and materials. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’ve been working on finishing up my last piece all day. I guess I lost track of time.” Minho just hums in response, taking a sip of his hot chocolate. “You can come inside, you know.” Seungmin laughs and Minho awkwardly shuffles into the room completely, closing the door behind him. 

He watches as Seungmin clears his notifications, mumbling something to himself about responding to all of the texts later. 

The words from Jisung’s text rings in his mind. 

_ So what are you gonna do about it? _

What  _ was _ he going to do about it? He couldn’t tell Seungmin now, could he? He’s stressed out about his project, but at the same time, he’s held back his feelings for long enough. Seungmin glances over at Minho with a small smirk on his face. 

“Are you enjoying the view?” Seungmin jokes and Minho snaps out of it. 

“Yes, actually.” The older boy speaks boldly, surprised when he doesn’t stumble over his words despite how nervous he is on the inside. 

Seungmin drops his phone onto the table, playing it off with a laugh. That was definitely not the response he was expecting. “Uh,” Seungmin begins, rushing back over to the mannequin without sparing a second glance at the older boy. “How’d you even get in here?”

“I have this really great friend, you might know him. Name’s Hwang Hyunjin. He’s a fashion major as well,” Minho teases. 

Seungmin only looks up from his project to glare at Minho. “Stealing my friends now, are we?”

Minho shrugs, taking one last sip from his hot chocolate before setting it down on the table. “Not my fault they like me better.” The older boy jokes and makes his way over to where Seungmin is standing. Seungmin turns to face him and raises an eyebrow at the close proximity. “This is for you, by the way.” 

Minho holds out the hand that’s holding the latte he got for Seungmin earlier at the coffee shop. “Thank you,” Seungmin breathes out, still in awe from how close they are to each other. He takes hold of the cup but Minho doesn’t let go of it, their hands touching for much longer than necessary. 

Minho’s eyes take a moment to really observe Seungmin’s face from this level of closeness. When he glances down to look at his lips, his eyes stop for a moment to linger. He doesn’t notice, but Seungmin does. He swears he stops breathing when he catches Minho’s gaze stops at his lips. 

When their eyes meet once again, the older notices Seungmin’s eyes are locked on his. “Uh, I’m sorr-” He begins and pulls away, but he’s cut off by the feeling of Seungmin’s lips against his own. 

Maybe it’s the hopeless romantic in Minho, but he feels the sparks. He feels the tingles where their lips meet. He feels the overwhelming amount of warmth blossoming in the spot near his chest where Seungmin’s left hand is balled into a fist around his shirt to pull him closer. 

They pull away and Seungmin exhales deeply. He’s shocked by himself for kissing Minho. Honestly, Minho is shocked too because he always thought he would be the one to kiss Seungmin first. 

So it was decided, now was the time. Seungmin wouldn’t kiss him if he didn’t have feelings for him, right? It seems like the confirmation the older boy needed to make his confession. Minho finally opens his mouth to speak, “Seungmin, I-”

“What? Are you gonna say you love me or something?” Seungmin asks through a fit of awkward laughter. 

Minho’s breath gets caught in his throat as he blinks rapidly to process what Seungmin had said. Then he laughs. “No, of course not.” Minho steps away from the younger boy and shoves his hands into the pockets of his jacket. “I was going to say we should get you home. You’ve been here all day and it’s pretty late, I’d feel better if I drove you back.”

Seungmin takes a few steps back, widening the gap between the two boys.“Yeah, let me just pack up and we can get going?” Minho nods in response.

And so they drive to Seungmin’s apartment in silence. There’s an awkward tension between them and neither of them knows exactly how to fix it. 

Seungmin feels like an idiot for kissing Minho and Minho feels like an idiot for thinking that Seungmin could possibly like him back. When they get back to Seungmin’s apartment building, Minho only mutters a quick goodnight before Seungmin collects his belongings and hesitantly steps out of his car. 

He knows he should say something. He knows he should mention the kiss. But he’s scared. Scared that Minho doesn’t like him and Seungmin made a stupid mistake by kissing him. Scared that Minho will never talk to him again because of the stupid kiss. Scared that this will change everything and it would honestly just be easier to pretend that it never happened. 

So he closes the door behind him and waves one last time before jogging to the main entrance of his apartment complex. 

“Seungmin, finally! I was starting to get worried.” Jisung greeted as soon as Seungmin stepped through the front door. Seungmin’s head was full of his own thoughts as he wordlessly slid his shoes off by the door. “You good?”

“Yeah, fine.” The younger boy mumbles. He runs his hand through his hair as he makes his way over to the living room where Jisung is seated on the couch. When he shrugs his jacket off, he notices an unfamiliar one resting on the back of the couch. “Is someone here?”

Jisung slowly closes the book that’s sitting in his lap and slides his glasses off, placing them both on the coffee table. “Um, yeah. Maybe Changbin.”

“Oh,” Seungmin replies. “At least your love life is going well.”

The blond boy blinks and takes a moment to think about whether he should ask questions or not. “He’s sleeping,” he begins, “if you wanna talk or anything.”

Seungmin drops onto the couch, immediately laying his head in Jisung’s lap. “I ruined everything, Sung.” The words are barely coherent as they get muffled by the soft fabric of Jisung’s pajama pants. Jisung doesn’t respond, though, knowing that Seungmin will continue if he wants to. “I kissed him.”

“Him?” Jisung asks even though he knows exactly who his best friend is talking about. 

“Minho. He came by the studio today to pick me up because he was worried about me and he brought me a stupid coffee. And I looked at his stupid pretty face and I couldn’t stop thinking about his stupid perfect personality and how much I wanted to kiss his stupid lips so I just did it and now we’re here.”

“What’s here?” Jisung asks cautiously, raking his fingers through Seungmin’s hair. “He didn’t say anything about it?”

“He was going to but then I got nervous that he would be upset so I made a stupid joke about him saying he loves me and then it was just awkward for the rest of the night.” Seungmin rambles before groaning. 

“Seungmin, you should’ve let him talk.” Jisung scolds the younger boy who only groans again in response. “Trust me. He has something really important to say to you.”

Seungmin shoots up from Jisung’s lap and raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean? Did he tell you something?”

Jisung quickly raises his hands in surrender. “I know nothing. But if I did know something, I would tell you to let him speak to you.”

“Sung?” A voice came from the hallway where the bedrooms were located. Seungmin makes a noise of disgust when he sees a shirtless Changbin exiting Jisung’s room. “Oh, Seungmin! You’re back.”

“I’m back.” 

“He’s back,” Jisung sings, letting an awkward laugh fall from his lips. “Yeah. I’m gonna head to bed.”

Jisung stands from the couch and dashes towards his room, grabbing ahold of Changbin’s hand and pulling him along. 

Seungmin can only shake his head at his roommate’s antics as he falls back onto the couch. Well, what was he supposed to do now?

It doesn’t take long for Seungmin to figure out what he wants to do. In fact, it doesn’t even take a full hour for him to realize he made a huge mistake and he needs to fix it before it’s too late. 

Without even telling Jisung that he was heading out again, Seungmin shoots up from the couch and makes his way out the door quickly. He didn’t have a car so he couldn’t drive to Minho’s, he could’ve taken the bus but the night route only stops by his apartment once an hour and Seungmin really doesn’t have that much time to waste so he decides to just make a run for it. 

Minho’s apartment honestly isn’t too far and the run wouldn’t have been bad if it didn’t start pouring when Seungmin was about halfway there. And that’s how the younger boy ends up outside Minho’s apartment at one in the morning, soaking wet and banging loudly at his door. 

Minho opens the door, very obviously shocked at the sight in front of him. Seungmin takes note of his wet hair, assuming that he must have recently gotten out of the shower. “What are you doing here?” Minho questions slowly, looking above his door frame at the clock to confirm what time it is. 

“Can we please talk?” Seungmin asks quietly, much different from the loud, disruptive banging he was previously doing on Minho’s door. 

Minho steps to the side with a small smile, motioning for Seungmin to come in and closing the door behind him. He knows that he should feel differently. Maybe embarrassed, confused, even angry, but all he can feel when he sees Seungmin’s face is happiness. “Let me get you some dry clothes to change into,” Minho offers and begins to walk off towards his room but Seungmin quickly reaches out to grab his arm. 

“We need to talk first,” Seungmin speaks firmly before taking a deep breath. “Look, I don’t really know how to say this. I’ve never done this before and I already messed up the first time I wanted to say something so please just bear with me.” Minho nods slowly, encouraging Seungmin to keep going. “So basically, um, when we kissed I got really nervous because I thought I ruined everything between us which is why I made that stupid joke about being in love with me and I’m not saying that you’re in love with me or anything I’m just saying that I didn’t say that because I don’t like you, I was just nervous and I didn’t want to scare you off. I really like you, Minho. And it’s really hard for me to say that because I’m not sure how you feel about me and I don’t want this to-”

Seungmin’s rambling is suddenly cut off when a familiar pair of lips meet his own. This time he has nothing to worry about. No concerns about ruining their friendship, no worrying about where things are going to go from here, it’s just them. 

Minho pulls away with a wide grin on his face, both hands cupping Seungmin’s face. “You walked all the way here in the rain just to tell me that you like me,” the older boy lets a teasing chuckle fall from his lips, “Kim Seungmin, you’ve become a romance cliché.” 

Seungmin rolls his eyes playfully. “Can I get those dry clothes now?”

Minho hums happily in response, leaning forward to press one more kiss against the younger boy’s lips. 

After showering and changing into some fresh clothes, Seungmin makes his way into bed with Minho like he’s gotten used to doing. He can’t help the smile that spreads across his face as he leans down to rest his head on Minho’s chest. “Hey,” Minho speaks suddenly, causing Seungmin to look up at the older boy. “Remember when I said you’d fall in love with someone by the end of the semester? It’s because I was hoping it would be me.”

Seungmin feels his cheeks begin to heat up at the sudden confession and playfully reaches out to hit Minho’s arm. “You’re so damn cheesy.”

“I know,” Minho smiles widely and leans down to press a final kiss to the younger boy’s forehead before turning out the light. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! please leave kudos or a comment if you enjoyed! 
> 
> i hope you all are staying safe and healthy with everything going on in the world <3


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